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Mayawati cautions cops against false FIRs

LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Mayawati has issued stern instructions to police officers to book persons who lodge false FIRs in order to settle personal scores.

While the Chief Minister has been encouraging citizens to lodge FIRs against wrongdoers during the erstwhile Mulayam Singh regime, she has, however, cautioned the police officers to ensure that the details mentioned in the first information reports are thoroughly investigated before any action is taken.

Ms. Mayawati’s directives were issued amid reports of misuse of the facility provided by her Government.

State Principal Secretary (Home) J. N. Chamber, who briefed the Press here over the weekend, admitted that some special FIRs lodged recently (by those who were unable to report the crime during the previous regime) were found to be baseless. He said the last date for lodging special FIRs had now been extended till August 22. The campaign was launched on June 22 and the one-month period expired on July 22.

According to the special FIRs position from June 22 to July 22, available with The Hindu, a total of 7,057 FIRs were lodged, of which 688 were rejected as they were found to be wrong. Investigation was conducted in 6,369 cases and final report was filed in 607 cases. Charge sheet was filed in 1,236 cases.

While 22,381 persons were named in the special FIRs, investigations by the police revealed that a whopping number of 3,923 names – which comes to about 17.5 per cent of the total number of those named -- mentioned in the FIRs were false. They were not involved in the crimes listed in the reports.

Ms. Mayawati warned the officers that crime should not be concealed and all-out efforts should be made to work them out. In fact, the Chief Minister wanted the officers to create an environment for a zero crime rate in Uttar Pradesh. She said that issues which threatened to snowball into major crimes should be nipped in the bud. Ms. Mayawati instructed the officers that if the aggrieved persons were unable to file a criminal complaint at the police stations they should be allowed to submit their applications, which would be treated as FIRs, in the SP office.